Finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and loved it. At times I found Salander to be really unlikeable, but overall I thought it was excellent. The very very end was actually surprising, which is rare. I'm now on to the second book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, which is probably even better since I'm invested in the characters.

_________________A pie eating contest is a battle with no losers. - amandabear

I picked up J. Randy Tarrabelli's (sp?) latest biography on one of my favorite subjects, Marilyn Monroe. I swear, I've read every biography, possibly every biographical type book written about Marilyn (she is one of my muses, so extensive reading is a must!) Anyway, I haven't started yet but just looking through the acknowledgements on the weekend, he praises Anthony Summers' 1985 book on her Goddess as the greatest bio thus far which, while it was a decent book, is not a good sign because, you know, there's a buy-in in the Summers book to the JFK conspiracy (in case you don't know, there's a whole thing like RFK was present IN MARILYN'S BEDROOM the night she died. Uh, puhlease). Also, Summers puts way too much weight on Robert Slatzer, who swears he was a close friend of Marilyn's throughout her entire life, and in fact, was briefly married to her in the early 1950s yet not one person who knew her (Arthur Miller, Susan Strasberg, her maid Lena Pepitone, etc) ever mentions his name, verifies any sort of close relationship that Slatzer swears he had with her, and so on. I love when someone's rabid fantasies are treated as fact. Really lends credibility to your undertaking...

And Tarrobelli doesn't even mention Barbara Leaming's book that I could see, which, in my opinion, has been the best Marilyn biography so far, with a cool assessment of material, and NO CONSPIRACY THEORIES, no Robert Slatzer.

Also, I want the new Marilyn book Fragments for Christmas! A collection of letters, poems, writings, by the woman herself, who I'd like to hear from most of all in all this...

I loved this book. I thought it was better than the one before it. I'm still on the waiting list for the next in the series.

I finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and am starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest today. I've really liked this series, and the person from whom I borrowing them said she liked the last one best, so I'm really looking forward to it.

_________________A pie eating contest is a battle with no losers. - amandabear

I loved this book. I thought it was better than the one before it. I'm still on the waiting list for the next in the series.

The third book (Faithful Place) is so, so good. I couldn't stop reading it, and it ended up being my favorite of the three.

rachell37 wrote:

I finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and am starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest today. I've really liked this series, and the person from whom I borrowing them said she liked the last one best, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I also am *finally* getting around to reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and am about halfway through. I'm really loving it so far.

edited because I can't click the "preview" button before I hit "submit."

I just finished Crashing Through by Robert Kurson. It's the true story of Mike May, who regained sight in his 40s after being blind since age 3. It was an interesting story; unfortunately I didn't think the book was very well written.

_________________"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque